NHS controversy results in second selection

Morgan Hudson, Editor-in-Chief
November 2, 2011
Filed under News

Controversy over the non-selection of almost 70 percent of National Honor Society candidates will result in a second selection of candidates in late winter or early spring and could lead to an overhaul to the selection process.
Thirty-two of 46 students who completed the application process were rejected by the local NHS selection committee, which is comprised of five anonymous Chanute High School teachers.
“We’re going to do it again, because we had so many quality kids that didn’t make it,” CHS Principal Kent Wire said. “But some of the students need to tighten up their essays and become more involved in service to the community.
The current selection process requires that a student must have a 3.6 grade point average to be considered a candidate. Candidates are then asked to write an essay and complete a resume.
Teachers are asked to rate students on service and leadership. Attendance and discipline reports are also looked at.
All of this information is then presented to the five-member selection committee which votes on each student. Three votes are needed to approve a candidate’s selection.
Only the selection committee and the NHS sponsor, who is not allowed to vote or participate in the proceedings, is allowed in the room.
Speculation from students and parents that the proper protocol was not followed was dismissed by Wire after investigating the topic by talking to NHS sponsor Jill Stevenson and members of the committee.
“We absolutely followed protocol,” Wire said.
Attempts by The Comet to schedule an interview with Stevenson were unsuccessful.
The NHS constitution states that students have the right to appeal the selection committee’s decision, but Wire said that since the proper protocol was followed it was unlikely he would overturn the decision before the next selection.
“I wouldn’t overrule on a student unless (the selection committee) did (the process) wrong,” Wire said. “That would just indicate that I think I’m smarter as an individual than those five teachers. The only way that I would grant an appeal is if we didn’t do it right.”
Students can appeal beyond the principal to the superintendent and the school board.
Wire said the selection process could change, noting students already in NHS have the power to suggest changes to the current system.
“This is up to the kids, this is up to the NHS members to decide how they want that to work,” Wire said. “I have to approve it, the sponsor has to approve it, but really when you have your best students in the building and they say, ‘We recommend this,’ it’s really hard not to listen to them.”
Wire said that he hopes changes to the selection process are made.
“If they get a 3.6 (GPA), is there any reason we should not let that student on? I would need to ask, ‘Have they done something that’s really embarrassing to them or the school that we shouldn’t let them on?’ If the answer to that is ‘not that we know of’ then I think that they should be on,” Wire said. “They already have a 3.6, do we really need an essay? We can see what all these kids are doing so do we really need a resume?”
The last change that the NHS selection process underwent occurred just after Wire arrived as principal at CHS in 1999.
“One act that every chapter should do at least once while they’re in high school is look at the bylaws and the guidelines and see if that’s something that still represents their school,” Wire said. “So if our bylaws are 20 or 25 years old, does that represent what we want National Honor Society to be in our school?”
Some students were taken aback by their non-selection and would welcome a change to the process.
“I was surprised and upset because I felt like I had put so much work into my grades throughout high school, and I have been involved in many activities and clubs,” junior Rachel Tucker said. “I think a change would be good, because the more people in NHS the better it would be for the school and community.”
While there has been speculation from students that the selection committee allowed personal biases to sway their votes, Wire said such a scenario is rare.
“It matters who the teachers are sometimes, because there are that many personalities,” Wire said. “It’s happened before, but rarely is it where three teachers sit around that table and say, ‘Oh this student is not good enough to be in National Honors Society.
Wire said a sub-par essay or resume is generally the reason an otherwise worthy candidate is not selected.
“I wish more kids would have gotten in,” Wire said. “Sometimes when you look at the list and you’re like, ‘How come this student didn’t get in?’ or ‘How come that student didn’t get in?’ But when you say that you didn’t see their essay and you didn’t see their resume.”
Wire said he has called almost all parents and tried to meet with each student that was not selected. He said he has offered to look at students’ resumes and essays to offer them guidance before the next round of selections.
“If it’s just their resume or their essay then that shouldn’t be something that keeps them out if they want to work on it,” Wire said.
The controversy surrounding this year’s selection is nothing new according to Wire.
“There’s a problem when there are students every year that don’t get in,” Wire said. “National Honor Society is by no means, in my mind, a fair process in any school I’ve ever been in, because it’s subjective.”